Sam Smith - One of the generally unnoticed aspects of the 2020 election was that a number of the ultimately key states - Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia - had a strong rural quality. In fact, even Pennsylvania does. As Wikipedia notes: "In 2016, Pennsylvania ranked first in the United States in Agaricus mushroom production, fourth in apple production, fourth in Christmas tree production, fifth in dairy sales, fifth in grape production, and seventh in winemaking.”
In recent decades America’s liberals have become increasingly urban and upscale and, as a result, far less interested in rural or small town America. While this works as far as the popular vote is concerned, it doesn’t sew up the electoral count.
And it doesn’t have to be this way. For example, the liberals of the Roosevelt Administration introduced soil conservation programs, the TVA and rural electrification.
Small towns are also a purposeful field for liberals. Given the increasingly autocratic quality of federalism, what we do at the state and local level becomes ever more important for retaining democracy and progress. But according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Republicans control 59 state legislative chambers while Democrat have only 39.
And at a county level, we find a revealing trend. Back in 1998, some 45% of rural counties leaned Democratic. By 2017 it was down to 38%.
There are lots of things liberals could do to help rural and small town America such as improving Internet service, better transportation and better access to health services.
The other huge shift in liberalism has been the decline in its interest in working class America. Again a look at the New Deal offers a strong alternative.
Its Works Progress Administration employed 8.5 million people in its seven-year history, working on 1.4 million projects, including the building or repair of 103 golf courses, 1,000 airports, 2,500 hospitals, 2,500 sports stadiums, 3,900 schools, 8,100 parks, 12,800 playgrounds, 124,000 bridges, and 125,100 public buildings.
And then you add things like the regulation of banks, a minimum wage, legal alcohol, right of labor to bargain with employers, housing loans, unemployment insurance and the Small Business Administration.
Nothing like this has been seen in more recent times and this failure, combined with the sharp decline in union membership, has left the working class susceptible to con men like Donald Trump. The answer is a liberalism that increases its concern for that group of voters, And there’s plenty to talk about such as hiking minimum wage, better overtime wages and helping unions come back.
In short, make the concerns of rural, small town and working class America a high priority and the liberal-conservative story will dramatically change.
